Database systems that contain personally identifiable information or other types of specialized data may be required to be purged because of regulations, company policies, or for other reasons. One simple solution for purging is to remove the entire database entry associated with the records or other types of specialized data. However, this crude removal can damage database integrity and impair the usefulness of the database. For example, records or other types of specialized data may be referenced by other records that may include human resource, corporate, financial, and/or other records. Upon removal of the database entry, the references between records, which constitute database integrity, can no longer be used compromising an important element of database utility.